CANYON CITY – One of groups playing a key role in last week’s 9/11 remembrance ceremony was an Oregon Army National Guard with a special, and little-known, service.

The Guard unit helps conduct Military Funeral Honors for veterans of all branches of the services.

Retired 1st. Sgt. Duncan Pierce is the leader for the Guard’s Eastern Oregon team. The team trains weekly to be able to provide the military honors ceremonies over an approximately 42,000-square-mile region.

Most military funeral honors for veterans are comprised of certain basic services, such as flag presentation, flag folding and the bugle playing of taps.

The honors can include other elements as well for active duty members and military retirees. The Guard can meet an airplane, transfer a hearse and/or keep vigil over a casket. There might be a medal ceremony, or a more elaborate flag folding component, with up to eight military personnel participating, according to Pierce. The family’s wishes are also taken into consideration.

“A minimum of two uniformed military personnel, currently in active service, are required for the ceremony, with at least one of those being a member of the military branch in which the veteran being honored served,” Pierce said. The remainder of the Guard doing the honors can be retired military personnel.

Pierce, who has a 25-year-military career, including time in Vietnam and the Middle East, and 30 years in law enforcement in the state of Oregon, retired in 2003. He trained members of the Ellis Tracy Unit #77 of the John Day American Legion and the local Veterans of Foreign Wars to assist with last week’s service in Canyon City.

A 2000 Congressional law mandating the honors service for veterans, combined with the increasing deaths of veterans – at the rate of “about 1,500 per day,” according to Pierce – has increased the need for the unit’s services. With the Oregon Military Funeral Honors Program now in place, all a family has to do is make a simple phone call to their local funeral home or director and a Casualty Assistance Officer takes it from there. The Oregon Army National Guard can also be contacted directly.

Although the Oregon Army National Guard usually performs funeral honors for private families, personnel also are available for community remembrances and ceremonies, as was the case with the Canyon City service. They are also available for all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

For links to more information, visit www.myeaglenews.com.